Youth collects 100K books

ROSWELL, Ga. – As any parent will tell you, it’s difficult to get teens active in their community, let alone to do it voluntarily.

But one 13-year-old has jumped at the chance to help others.

Remington Youngblood, of Forsyth County, has started his own nonprofit group to help not only his community, but greater Georgia.

Called “Change 4 Georgia” (C4G), he started out supplying goods for soldiers overseas and his endeavors have grown ever since.

It began when Remington was 10 years old.

“I was looking for volunteer opportunities,” he said.

He called several places in the area, but each one turned him down, largely due to his young age. Undeterred, Remington chose to start his own nonprofit.

“For all the troops are doing for us – not seeing their families, and missing holidays and important dates – they are missing out because of their duty,” Remington said. “I had to do something.”

He started collecting food, supplies and books to send overseas to troops, getting the community to pitch in as well.

It has proven successful. To date, C4G has raised over $1 million for the troops in cash and in-kind donations.

As part of this program, Remington wanted to gift books. He contacted Better World Books, an Indiana-based book donation company that collects books from book donation bins around the country. The company agreed to donate his books – 100,000 of them.

There was only one snag – how do you ship 100,000 books from Indiana to Georgia? Well, by truck. But that costs a lot of money.

A shipping company agreed to waive half the $4,000 cost, but Remington still needed to raise the rest.

That’s where Carl Black Roswell, a GMC dealership, stepped up. The dealership agreed to pick up the rest of the tab.

“It’s impressive what a bunch of children can do when they get together,” said Tod Smiley Baker, general manager of Carl Black Roswell. “I thought, ‘whatever they need, let’s take care of it.’ What they are doing is amazing.”

Roswell Councilwoman Betty Price agreed.

“He’s a remarkable young man to show the drive and wisdom to support this kind of effort,” Price said. “This sort of thing is important to the country.”

With the question of the books taken care of, Remington still has one problem left to solve – he needs a 2,000-square-foot warehouse to house the books for several months until they are delivered.

Maybe someone else in the community will have the same reaction Baker did; how can I help?

If readers have new or gently used books, warehouse space or monetary donations to C4G, email Change4Georgia@gmail.com. For more information, visit www.change4georgia.org.